7 months

My Marlee turned 7 montsh-like almost 2 weeks ago. Slacker mom...

Anyhow, she continues to grow and learn and do all the wonderful things that she is supposed to. We marvel at what a sweet baby she is. She loves to grab a handful of hair and pull me in for a big ol wet kiss. I get most of the kisses. I love that. She is getting so big, her little feet are at the very end of the infant carrier, almost time to say good bye to that. We put away the bouncy seat, and the play gym as she has out grown them. She has become a great sitter, I pretty much never prop her up, she does just fine on her own. Can roll anywhere she needs to go-reminder to self, never ever leave her on our bed alone, she is at the edge in about two seconds.

Marlee seemed to take a break from solids for a spell, but her appetite is back thankfully. She enjoyed her first Thanksgiving, however I think she would have liked a slice of pumpkin pie over the pureed sweet potatoes. She got to have yogurt for the first time-yum! She loves it, in fact sometimes that is the only thing she is willing to eat.

Each night about 7:00 she wants to be stripped down to her diaper so she can roll around. No matter how foul her mood, this always makes her happy. She is ticklish and it is about the greatest thing ever to listen to her laugh and laugh.

What she does not like is riding in the car after dark. Not sure if its that she can't see anything , or a bad time of the day or what, but she lets us have it. And we did a bit of traveling this past month so she had plenty to be mad about.

Highlights:

Sitting in the Highchair

Watching Hayden play basketball-so many little people running around!

First Ferry boat ride. Who could forget the middle of the night playtime with Dad at the hotel?

Thanksgiving in Idaho-going to the museum, riding in the backpack and geocaching.

First snow.

Poor thing, her 7 month milestone was sorta overshadowed by Sage's birthday. She took it all in stride though. She was happy to share the spotlight.

3!

Sage has turned three and is sooo fun. She is currently trying to master holding up three fingers. This girl is a social butterfly, and talks like she is 13! She loves to be a big girl, and desperatly wants to go to Kindergarten with her brother. Occasionally she goes to his class with me and feels right at home. She is going to be so ready for preschool next year. One of her most favorite things to do is paint, and also spends lots of time coloring. I was a little worried that she was not picking up her ABCs but we made up a little song to help her with her name and now she can tell you how to spell it and a few other names. Really cute.

She brings so much joy to our lives, I can't imagine what we would do without her. She is totally a daddy's girl. Heath can not tell her no for anything. Her big brother is her best friend. They play together so well, and cause lots of trouble together too. She would do anything for him. She even has started to show affection and concern for her sister. Me and Sage have a great time running errands while Hayden is at school; she is my little helper.

Her obsessions still include Dora, but she has expanded out to include the Disney Princesses. Cinderella is her favorite. So to celebrate the 3 year mark, we celebrated with a Cinderella cake.

She was a little nervous to cut it, but after spending all day telling her how yummy it would be and preparing her, she consented.

Pink is her favorite color and flavor. She always asks for pink lemonade, pink milk, pink anything. Macaroni and cheese is one of her most favorite foods, along with chicken noodle soup (Campbells, not homemade); however Saturday lunch with Dad is something her and Hayden both look forward to all week long: hot dogs and gatorade (eww, I soooo do not endorse this)

She loves to sing; loud, and mostly songs like ABCs, wheels on the bus, Book of Mormon Stories, I am a Child of God, Old McDonald, Twinkle Twinkle; but sometimes she throws in a few more grown up tunes: Lime in the Coconut, Wee who Whoo hoo (Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani), Real Gone, Life is a Highway, Party like a Rock Star ("its Avery's song!").

Sage is full of energy, she wiggles and chats all day long. Not sure she can sit still even if she needed too. I love that she sucks her thumb and snuggles with her pink blankie. She loves her nap and if I don't get her down, she will find a spot and take care of it herself. She has a very strong personality (not sure where that comes from). We love her so much. Happy birthday Princess Sage!

Our Thanksgiving

A bit late, but here is the recap of our trip to Idaho for Thanksgiving. Good times! The 5K was an excellent start to the trip (details below). And we figured that all the calories we burned running would allow for major binging the rest of the day! I made a chocolate pie, after all, it's not Thanksgiving without chocolate pie, right Dad? (as if he reads this) Heath made 4 pumpkin pies. 5 pies for 6 adults and what seemed like about 35 kids but indeed was only 5 kids--overkill? No way, those pies didn't last long, especially considering Heath and his family are strong believers in pie for breakfast. Who am I to disagree?

Since we learned to make butter in Hayden's class, I thought it would be fun to make it with the kids. Gabe did about four shakes and since it wasn't butter, he lost interest. Most of the other kids gave up shortly after that as well. But Gretchen, Heath, Will, Dalton and I got it done. Grayson came back at the end to turn out some fine butter as well. Tasty stuff.

I must say, Grandpa's mashed potatoes were some of the finest I've had in years. It was extra special to have Great Grandma D at dinner.

So forever as long as I can remember, my dad has carved the turkey. Well, since Dad was hundreds of miles away, Heath stepped up. Ummm, watch out Martha, he can carve a turkey like nobodies business! Wow, what a guy. Gorgeous presentation as well. Iron chef Idaho?

Miss Marlee dined on sweet potatoes and banana yogurt. mmmm.

On Friday, after some Christmas shopping, we visited the Idaho museum. It was lots of fun. They are currently having an ice age exhibit. Heath was amazed to find out that there used to be whooly rhinos. Pretty cool stuff. The kids liked the kids play area, it had caves to explore and trees to climb and lots of other interesting things.

Friday night we had a little birthday for Sage. Craigo's for dinner of course. Stuffed ourselves silly again. Hey, we were really stretching those 5K calories.

Aunt Gretchen and Grandma had picked her out a Dora cake, which she was tickled with. They had also got a pinata. We stuffed all our leftover halloween candy in it and let the kids whack away at it in the basement. Hope the exploding candy didn't leave any dents in the wall! Saturday we went geocaching. It was way fun but we only found 2 of the 4 treasures. It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but nothing we couldn't handle. Burned off a bit more of that pie.

Then we celebrated Will's birthday.

Favorites:

Heath: Pie! The race

Lori: The race, Christmas shopping with just Heath for the first time in 6 years

Hayden: Riding the go-carts at TSR, Jumping on the cushions in the basement with the boys (yes, all the money spent to entertain him throughout the weekend and he picks the random free stuff)

Sage: getting pink milk at the hotel, getting her pink camrea from grandma and grandpa for her birthday

Marlee: Riding in the backpack outside when we went geocaching, rolling all over the living room playing with all the different toys.

Elfin good time

my funny elves! Prepare for a laugh
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114402884

Turkey Trot

Last Thanksgiving I was early pregnant-too busy throwing up to really appreciate the holiday. I recall Heath calling his parents to wish them a happy turkey day and when he got off the phone he told me that his sister and dad had done a 5K turkey trot. I thought that was pretty cool. I have never gotten any thrill from running, probably because I have never really ran. Well, in my delicate condition, I decided that I would run in 2007, and it would be especially convenient as we would be in Idaho.
Fast forward a year…after lots of time on my treadmill, we arrived at race day. Heath, Harry, Gretchen, Dalton and I were all in on the fun. It was a gorgeous morning, temperature about 17 degrees F at race time. Brrrr, not quite what I had planned for. Well, despite the runny nose and frozen toes, I did it! 5K-3.2 miles. My time? 28:20. Is that good? Is that bad? I don’t know, this was my first ever race. I ran the thing, any time was going to be good. I didn’t think I would ever be able to run 3 miles. I placed 119th out of 282. I’m no Kody or Stacy, but its certainly good enough for me! (you guys are my heros)
Kudos also to Heath, You are so awesome! He was 45th, his time was 22 minutes 17 seconds. Pretty sure he could have done even better, but he ran the first little bit with me. There is no way I ever could have done it without all his encouragement and advice.
And well, gotta say way to go to my father-in-law. He did pretty great too. He had intended to walk it, but instead ran the whole way! Nice! Dalton sooo impressed me too! Good job buddy.
It was a really fun morning. Hopefully this will be the start of a really great tradition.

Thanksgiving 2007

One of my greatest blessings.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great. Bring on Christmas.

Cousin Jenny's Wedding

Last weekend, my cousin Jenny got married. We made the trek up to Lummi Island, meeting up with Jamie, Kyle and Avery along the way. To get there, we got to ride a ferry boat. We talked up the ferry boat to the kids for the week leading up to the trip. I love ferry boats. Long ago, Thanksgiving always meant riding the ferry to Aunt Marie’s house on Whidbey Island. We always met up with family on the boat and had a great time. Sometimes we would get snacks from the snack bar, use the bathroom, wander out to the observation deck, or just sit and chat. I have wanted to take Hayden on a ferry for awhile now. But how surprised were we when this tiny little raft pulled up. It couldn’t of held more than 15-20 cars. Snack bar? Huh uh. In fact, when Jamie got out to take a picture of this thing, one of the ferry workers asked her firmly to get back in the car. Not the experience I expected, but still pretty fun.
The wedding was at a cute little church that Hayden was sure looked more like a temple than a church. Got to visit with the family as the ceremony was delayed when some of the guests missed the ferry. My kids decided that they would rather sit with anybody but mom and dad. Fine by me!

The reception was at a gorgous clubhouse overlooking the bay. Hayden had a great time hanging out with Jon and Grady, the big boys. Thanks guys for being so good to my little guy. Sage was soooo in awe of Jenny. She was of course a beautiful bride, and Sage was sure she must be a princess: gorgous dress, tiara, sparkly jewelry-yup, that's a princess for sure.

Heath pricelined us a room in Burlington. We stayed with Jamie, Kyle and Avery. What a fun evening. Heath and i forgot swim suits, but Hayden and Sage swam. Avery had the cutest little nemo floaty suit, she had a great time splashing with her mom and dad. Hayden kept trying to drown himself in 3ft deep water. He would forget he could touch and freak out. Good times. Sage wasn't much better, she just climbed in and out; pool, hottub, pool, hottub. Marlee just thought it was great to watch. She gets such a kick out of her brother and sister. We all got milkshakes next door. Sage had a special blend of water and pink milkshake. The bed was great, really comfortable. Unfortunately, Marlee woke up about 1:00am and since we were all in this little room, I couldn't let her cry (sometimes she wimpers a little in the night, but is not really awake. ) so I grabbed her to keep her from waking up the others. BIG MISTAKE!!! She really woke up and decided it was play time. I tried to get her back to sleep, no luck. Heath ended up taking her down to the lobby where she wiggled on the couch in front of the fireplace happily for a few hours. Finally went back down around 4:00. OK, so even the first couple of weeks after she was born she knew better than to do that. It was wicked.

Sunday we drove all day. It was a pretty drive, we got to enjoy the end of the fall colors. There was a bit of snow on the trees as we crossed the pass. But were we ever glad to get out of the car!

Favorites:

Marlee- sleeping on Auntie Kim during the wedding. Taking her tights off at the hotel and rolling around on the bed.

Sage-blowing bubbles at the church and talking with the princess

Hayden-riding the ferry and hangin with the boys; not drinking the pool water.

Lori-Visiting with Ang and Kim before the reception started, listening to Aidin ask his new sister, the flower girl, why she kept dropping petals over and over as they walked down the aisle. Milkshakes with Jamie and Kyle!

Heath-the food, although his fav was actually from the drive over on Friday; we stopped for dinner in Ellensburg on our way to my Dads. College town right? Well, Heath took the older two in to the restaurant while I fed the baby in the car. The cute girl behind the counter asked him if he had any plans for the weekend, and he told her he was going to the west side for a wedding. She looked at him, and then at the kids and said, "oh, are these your brother and sister?" He liked that.

Death beads

Boy, have I got a tale for you!

Early this fall, Hayden's school did a Jog-a-thon fundraiser. He raised $100.00-a big thank you to all that contributed. Anyhow, prizes for kids that raised this amount were many: a t-shirt, a playground ball, a whirley thingy, and $10.00 gift certificate to Toys R Us. Well, guess what Hayden's favorite part was. The gift card. So for a week or so he has had this money burning a whole in his pocket. Last Saturday, I took just him to spend it. We had a blast wandering through the toy store looking at stuff. He is just like his dad, very calculating when he shops. After checking out everything in the place at least 4 times, he decided on Aquadots. They are always advertising them on TV, and he has been begging me to get them for at least a month. I was very proud of his decision. It wasn't some dumb toy to be tossed in the bottom of the toy bin by mid afternoon, never to see the light of day again. This was actually something he wanted, something that stimulates creativity, and he pointed out that Sage would like it too. What a guy!

It was a little over his $10.00 limit, but hey, he has been such a good helper to me the last couple weeks that I was willing to help him out with the difference. So we happily tote home our prize and I kid you not, the kid sat down and played with the thing until we made him go with us to dinner, then he played with it until bed. The next day, he played with it all day long. He let Sage watch, and occasionally had a little job she could help with. He loved it. He crafted all kinds of creations with the little colored beads. Its kinda cool, you dispense them from what looks like a minature gumball machine into little trays, spray them with water and then set them under the little fan so they dry and Voila, the beads stick together. He had patterns he sometimes used, but made some pretty cool original art.

We discovered that the finished projects could be broken apart with a little effort and recycled. However, since it was such a hit, and he had just about used all the beads in projects that he didn't want to recycle, I bought him a refill pack yesterday. 750 new beads ready to be transformed into masterpieces!

Then, last night, we are just finishing cleaning up dinner when we turn the news on. There is my buddy, Brian Williams announcing a toy recall: "Children in Australia who have ingested the aquadots demonstrate symptoms similar to people who have ingested the date rape drug GHB. If you have this toy, please take it away from your child immediately." I usually try to keep the kids away from the TV when the news is on, but guess who was right at my side with huge eyes watching that telecast? Yup. He looked at his dad with a face that said, please tell me I heard him wrong. Heath pulled Hayden in close and explained that the aquadots were making kids very sick and we had to take it back to the store because we didn't want him to get sick too. Oh, the tears! He was crushed. We asked him if he had eaten any of them. He said no. Heath wandered aloud what they would taste like, and Hayden promptly responded with, "like soap." I said, "I thought you said you didn't eat them." and he said, "I didn't, I just put one in my mouth."

Great. Oh, and as the little death beads are miniscule, they are scattered about everywhere on the floor. I've swept and vaccumed but they still linger around.

Apparently, the glue converts to a chemical similar to that in GHB when sprayed with water. And since water is essential for using aquadots, poisoning children seems inevitable. What a great toy!

Princess for the Day

Sage and I got to have a most magical evening together. We went to Disney’s Princesses on Ice. We spent all day getting ready. First we had to go get a tiara. Then Brenna came over and we did our nails and made princess wands. (oh, what a smart mommy, I knew they would have wands at the show to buy for a small fortune, but my princess took her own, and never asked once for the fancy light up ones. Yeah, smart and cheap!) Then, after her beauty sleep, we dolled her up. Katelyn lent her a Cinderella dress, since we- gasp-don’t have any Disney princess dresses. Sage was absolutely loving being in this gorgeous dress. She let me curl her hair and put on a dab of lip gloss. She looked so beautiful and grown up. Her daddy made her day telling her how pretty she was.
Then, off to the show with 2 car loads of princesses and mommies, and even an auntie Jamie. We arrived just as the show started. Jasmine, Belle, Ariel, Princess Aurora, Mulan, Snow White, Cinderella, Tinkerbell and even Minnie and Mickey were there. It was magical. Sage loved it all, well, maybe not the dragon from Sleeping Beauty, but everything else. It was so wonderful to be able to take her, all by herself and see the joy and amazement. We had a fabulous time. It was certainly a night to remember.

Miss Marlee is 6 months

Our sweet Marlee is half way to one! I have had so much fun with her this month. She has found that there is so much to explore and learn. Her dad was finally able to load her up in the back pack; we got that thing with Hayden, and it's on the top of Heath's list of essential baby gear. She loves to be up high where she can get a good view of all that is happening around her, and this month, there was so much to see. On the feeding front: cereal is not so much her thing, but we added veggies, and eating is a whole new ball game! We started out with green beans, my fav. She attacked the spoon with each bite, and continues to. Marlee has happily sucked down peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash in addition to the beans. She also got to start some fruit, and hard to believe it is possible, but seems to enjoy them even more-I know, shocking! Slow start, have only tried pears and applesauce, but soooo looking forward to peaches and prunes. Cereal even seems to have gained favor since the selection has expanded. Yum. Big brother and sister can't believe she eats that stuff, however both get extremely proud when she wears the bib that says "I love my big brother/sister. " She loves to chew. She can jam her entire fist in her mouth. Paper is a favorite toy. She slimed up coasters at restaurants all over town this month. She has these wrist rattles that she can't get enough of; Marlee most prefers the pink pig. They go in the mouth too, all that sticks out is the green band.

It’s the best when you set a baby down and they curl into a ball, well, Marlee is no exception. One of my favorite baby tricks, she has taken to chewing on her toes. She talks to her feet and loves to pull her socks off. Her dad can’t deal with this, so he must always put her cute shoes on, pink sketchers that he had bought for Sage, way back when. We love hand-me-downs. A big thanks to cousin Avery, who supplied much of the wardrobe for this month. Miss Marlee is still quite long, 95th percentile, and we can now dress her in 6-12 mo sizes, woo hoo, the cute stuff!
Mom and Hayden continue to be her favorites. But she is getting to be friendly with all. Kids especially get her wiggling. She is dying to be mobile and chase after them. Just the sight of her brother and sister makes her laugh. Got to watch her when we set her down, because she is a roly poly. She is a talker. I was noticing her verbal skills last month, but there is no doubt about it, she is a chatterbox. Not sure what it is she is saying, but she has a lot on her mind.

Flag Football

Hayden has done basketball, t-ball, soccer, swimming, and most recently flag football. I must admit, this was one sport I was NOT looking forward to. Don't get me wrong, I love football, its great, but I know the dangers, and would prefer my kid avoid any sport that eventually involves beating the tar out of each other every few minutes.

Hayden on the other hand, couldn't wait for flag football to come around. After the monday night Seahawks game last year, the kid is totally obsessed with football. Him and his dad have gone to many high school games here and he just can't get enough. So, we really didn't have much choice other than give it a go.

His team was the purple skeletons! How cool is that? They named themselves if you didn't guess. His buddy Copper from our neighborhood was on his team, so practices and games were really fun to hang out with friends. It was a perfect early fall for flag football, not to hot, not to cold, each time was great- that says a lot, no wind? What a miracle!

Going into the whole adventure, I think I secretly hoped he would either stink at it, or that it would bore him so we could walk away from football. Well, let me tell you that so didn't happen. He LOVED it. and don't mind me bragging, but he was pretty good too! I thought that maybe soccer was his thing, but perhaps there is a little bit of a running back in him. (can't tell you how proud he would be to read that) He can run really fast, and figured out blocking really quick. He got to be pretty good at snatching up flags before the other guys got too far. I figured he would want to be quarter back, but running back is his preference(hence the halloween costume!)

So, if truth be told, I think this flag football was the best sport yet. The games were fabulous. Action, humor, entertainment galore! As with all 4-5 year old sports, its like watching someone herd cats. Those buggers are everywhere. They weren't supposed to tackle, but that didn't stop them. Haydens buddy lived for the whistle to blow the play dead so he could begin throwing kids to the ground. One time, Cooper found himself playing running back and realized on his way down the field that the guy with the ball doesn't get to tackle, so he tossed a lateral to Hayden and tackled the nearest kid. They could have charged admission. It was a kick, Purple Skeletons rock!

Oh, and sports fans, stay tuned for future posts on the current season: back to basketball, this year with coach Dad!

November all ready

OK, what happened to October? How is it over all ready? It really was a whirlwind month for us. I look at the small number of posts on my blog and realize I left out sooooo much. We are so wiped out. It was a month of fun, on the go, all the time. So, now that November is here, things will surely slow down, right? HA, full speed ahead to the holidays!

Some notable events around here that need attention: Hayden's flag football season (can't believe that i never even mentioned it once!)

Disney Princesses on Ice

Marlee's 6 month birthday

And the Bouncey Place (if your dying to know about that one, you can get an adorable preview at Jamie's blog).

There are other things too, but these are the big ones and by putting it down here, it obligates me to get on it! Stay tuned.

Trick-or-Treat

Dora, Dora, Dora! Don't call her Sage. She fell in love with the whole idea of trick-or-treating the first time we described it to her. She was quite good at it too!
Shaun Alexander. Hayden was wondering why the costume didn't come with a cast for his hand, the real Shaun has a cast. Contemplated Matt Hasselbeck for awhile, but in the end, went for running back. Besides, he already had a #8 jersey, now he has some variety.
My little stinker! Has there ever been a cuter skunk? I think not! She stayed toasty warm in her costume. Too warm for our indoor activities.
carving pumpkins is one of my favorite parts of halloween. Heath isn't so much into it. He is chief mucker. Hayden and I sort seeds, and Sage says how "gusting" it all is. Marlee chewed on her foot for the whole thing. I am in charge of carving. Easy designs this year. However, the seahawk pumpkin is not real sturdy, don't expect to see it holding up in the morning. :(Boo from us!